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BEAN

Beans through Blues:

When i first came into town, you really brought me down,
So i found myself a root man, now i’m the baddest bean in town.

(Buddy Johnson’s Root Man Blues)

He’ll make you laugh, he’ll make you cry, he’ll drive those blues away. You’ll sit right down and weep and moan and then you’ll find he’s went Lord, I been wonderin’ where my jelly bean has gone.

(Ma Rainey’s Jelly Bean Blues)

Bean Pins for Bean Club members
Bean Pins for Bean Club members
(Elmer Bowman’s (1912), record by El Morrow and ‘Beans’ Hambone)

Beans! Beans! Beans!

(Elmer Bowman’s (1912), record by El Morrow and ‘Beans’ Hambone)
Butler ‘Stringbeans May’ (1894-1917), eccentric performer, singer, piano player and comedian, shooting star of black vaudeville. He performed with Jelly Roll Morton, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Sweetie Matthews and Butterbeans and Susie. Jelly Roll described him as ‘the greatest comedian (he) ever knew (..) a very very swell fellow’. It was Stringbeans who inspired him to wear a big diamond in his front tooth.
Butler ‘Stringbeans May’ (1894-1917), eccentric performer, singer, piano player and comedian, shooting star of black vaudeville. He performed with Jelly Roll Morton, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Sweetie Matthews and Butterbeans and Susie. Jelly Roll described him as ‘the greatest comedian (he) ever knew (..) a very very swell fellow’. It was Stringbeans who inspired him to wear a big diamond in his front tooth.

Terry ‘Harmonica’ Bean (1961), a lifelong resident of Pontotoc, Mississippi, first heard downhome blues at home. For many years Terry’s father, Eddie Bean, hosted informal music and gambling gatherings at the family’s house on Bean Hill.

He plays both harmonica and guitar, occasionally at the same time.

bean half

Floyd Bean (1904-1974), American Jazz pianist.

A 1946 postcard from the Hot Club of Chicago, preserved in the archive of the Chicago Jazz Institute, tells a typical Floyd Bean tale. The card announces an upcoming battle of the bands, a competition between Floyd Bean’s Toddlin’ Town Quintet and another band called the Windy City Five, with none other than Floyd Bean on piano. This guy was so busy on the Chicago scene that he even competed against himself in band battles.

(Eugene Chadbourne, Floyd Bean biography)

 
Beans through the microscope
Beans through the microscope

BEANS AND CORNBREAD

Beans and Cornbread had a fight
Beans knocked Cornbread out of sight
Cornbread said, “Now that’s alright
Meet me on the corner tomorrow night”
(…)
“Beans and Cornbread
Beans and Cornbread, hand-in-hand.”
That’s what Beans said to Cornbread
“We should stick together hand-in-hand
We should hang out together like wieners and sauerkraut
We should stick together like hot dogs and mustard
We should get up every morning
And hang out together like sisters and brothers”

Every Saturday night, we should hang out
Like chitlins and potato salad
Like strawberries and shortcake
Like corned beef and cabbage
Like liver and onions
Like red beans and rice
Like bagel and lox
Like sour cream and biscuits
Like bread and butter
Like hot cakes and molasses.

Beans told Cornbread
“It makes no difference what you think about me
But it makes a whole lotta difference what I think about you
We should hang out together like hot cakes and molasses.”

That’s what Beans said to Cornbread
“Cause Beans and Cornbread they go hand-in-hand.”

(Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five)

(Bean mobile, Lisa Jeannin & Rolf Schuurmans)
(Bean mobile, Lisa Jeannin & Rolf Schuurmans)

String Beans and Crushed Black Sesame

Fave e Pecorino

Baked Beans

Black Bean Empanadas

Butterbean, Tarragon and Breadcrumb Salad Maccu

Red Bean Ice Cream